Quick Note....

The Phlox is 'David' and is blooming now. The lily from Linda are all planted and mapped. Orange are in the nursery. Prairie Coneflower seeds are harvested and half are delivered, just have to mail to Linda. Watered today because I stopped believing the forecast since this is the fourth day of forecasted thundershowers and not a drop of rain. Decided the sprinkler would be more reliable in the heat we have been having in the afternoons. Everything is wilting out there and the river is overflowing so we can probably swing a little guilt free irrigation.

Frogs!

With all the flood waters this year, I have had an unusual number of frogs in my gardens. I have always had the odd frog show up in the sun gardens which are the closest gardens to the river. This is the first year that I have had frogs in the bird sanctuary garden and at the little house. The little house is normally a good distance from the river. Far enough that frogs don't venture there. This year though, they are everywhere and I come upon them often in the garden. When I get close, they get perfectly still. It makes taking photos of them easy and they love it when I am watering. Sometimes I talk to them quietly. I don't want Summer to notice them because it usually shortens their life expectancy pretty severely.

Jake on the Glass Truck

His favourite thing to do is climb in or on vehicles and he especially likes it when a new vehicle stops by that he can explore so I am not sure why he is looking so angry. Unless it is because I was trying to get him down just before I grabbed the camera. The glass truck didn't seem the safest place for him to explore but once I discovered he was too high for me to reach up there, taking photos seemed to be the next best option.

King of the Castle

Sometimes it is important to be king... even if you are the only one in the castle!

What's Missing?

The big space in the middle at the back will be an Ostrich Fern patch next year. I just planted all the root last week. It should fill that space nicely and make it so the Solomon Seal is not the only tall plant back there. So I have named this previously unnamed path... path to the fern. Seems odd this year when you can't actually see the fern but it works for me and it will remind me next year not to step on them before they are up.

The path to the fern is made of Bill's painted stepping stones. The sun is the first stone and is my favourite of the painted stones. Although the columbine stone runs a very close second.

A Permanent Home

The 'Loraine Sunshine' baby that came from Judy's garden this year has finally found a permanent home. I dug her up when she was quite small and I have been nurturing her along in a pothead all summer. Now she has her roots in the ground and a permanent spot. It is up by St. Francis in the bird sanctuary. In this spot, I can see her up close out the dining room window and she has lots of room she can grow into. I do hope she makes it through this winter!

Opus One

My 'Opus One' had three blooms this year and they are just finishing up, as are the 'Stargazer' which are the last of the blooming lily in my garden. Both are oriental lily which are not really hardy here. They grow and once established they will bloom well but they never get as tall as oriental lily are famous for. In fact, the only time I have seen an oriental lily blooming over my head was in Linda's garden in Nova Scotia. Oriental stay short in my garden. Funny thing is... I prefer them short. Not sure if it is a 'what I am used to' thing or not but I find lily blooming over my head is a little intimidating. Not sure why because I am certain they are not going to attack! Maybe it has to do with my aversion to spiders dropping down from above and how lily are great spider hiders. Regardless, I do love the orientals as long as there are not too many planted together. If they are all together, I find their smell cloying and cannot remain standing near them in the garden without feeling slightly sick. They also take some time to be established in Zone 3. This particular lily was brought from Linda's garden in 2009. Last year it had one bud that dried up and fell off without blooming. This year, it has three blooms and they all opened wide.

Hosta for Kelly

Shipping tomorrow (regular mail); ‘Carol’, ‘June’, bonus dark, ‘Dream Weaver’, ‘Christmas Candy’, ‘Wolverine’, aberdeen solid and aberdeen variegated. Total 8 hosta.

Shipping next season because they are too small to divide; ‘Thunderbolt’ and ‘Guacamole’.

Never shipping because they are lost; ‘Fire & Ice’, 'Kabitan' and ‘Stained Glass’.

Note: I discovered aberdeen solid and danielle’s tall were the same hosta so danielle’s tall does not exist anymore. My flickr is updated for all of the above.

'Golden Wave'

My begonia 'Golden Wave' are blooming in the love bus now. I got them in really late this year and was worried they would wither before they bloomed so I was happy to find them today. I did not notice them right away because the flowers open small and hang under big, umbrella leaves. These beauties are my favourite begonia. The flowers are pale pink on the outside but open to reveal an all yellow inside. They hang in little bunches of three or four and they look so delicate eventhough the stalks tell a different story, standing thick and strong. They are well worth the over-wintering effort!

Front Garden

Being an avid gardener, I hate to admit that my front garden is a mess... and I really mean a mess! I have done nothing with it since we moved in except for going on a rampage last fall and chopping down all of the bush that was off the front deck along the path. We never spend time in the front yard so the back was always my first priority. Turns out, after 8 summers, it has been my only priority. Since I had dug up so many plants for our planned move, that now have to go back in, I decided that this year I will get some control over the front gardens. I have put in three new plantings in the last few days and I have the rest roughly planned out. I am hopeful that next year there will be beautiful garden photographs to post that are all taken in the front yard. Wish me luck because I have decided that next year is going to be the season that I don't move anything. So much has been moved over the last 2 years that nothing has had a chance to reach its' mature size. Next year, nothing moves unless it is way overgrown or dying. With luck, that will mean nothing moves once I am done this fall.

Animals, wild and otherwise...

I came upon Hannah sleeping in the bird sanctuary the other day and as I snapped a picture, she got up for this halloween stretch. The top of the ladder has always been her afternoon napping spot. In fact, that is why the ladder is still in the garden. It was right in this spot when we moved in and she used it every day so we have never moved it. Hannah can always be found napping in the garden. I had a more unusual occurance the other night when Gordon and I went into the city mid-evening. The road was full of frogs! It was awful. Impossible to miss them and they were even jumping up and making "thud" sounds as they hit the car when we went by. They were all over the valley bottom on the roads. The grids and the highway. They were gone by the time we came back from the city and I hope it doesn't happen again. It was no fun at all. On a better note, the 'Alexander McKenzie' rose I transplanted last week is doing great and the colour looks awesome with the speedwell purple that it is planted next to. Now I am just waiting to find out what colour the liatris planted with them is. Any day now it should open.

Embracing Change

Heliopsis 'Loraine Sunshine', monkshood and Linda's red daylily are just a few of the new plants in my garden this season. I also reduced the size of the sun gardens by more than half and surprisingly, I am really enjoying that because it has meant that it is almost always completely weed free! Taking the rock edge away where that garden meets the lawn has also made it easier to keep a clean edge. Overall, I am happy with all of the changes in the garden this year and am planning even more. Today I have been clearing out at the front of the house for my new rose garden. The excitement of the day, despite the blooming flowers, was the little female finch I had to save from Penny and Hannah on the front deck. She hit the window and by the time I got there, Penny had her in her mouth with just a wing sticking out and a high pitched tweet coming from inside. Fortunately, Penny dropped her as soon as I told her to but by then, Hannah was running towards us. It was a bit of a panic but I managed to get the bird into a tree and after awhile, she flew off. We spent the afternoon cutting up the latest tree brought down by the prairie winds. That makes 3 this year. Another change I made today was the blog background. I did that in honour of the awesome skies we have been enjoying here. We are in the land of the living sky here but the last few days it has been more incredible than usual. A very pure, bright, clear blue that I have been unable to capture in photograph and do it any justice at all. We see a lot of sky here. It goes out for miles and miles. So it takes something special to get me snapping the camera upward. The colour has been so crystal clear, I find it impossible to even describe.